Post by Aramius on Dec 18, 2009 9:06:25 GMT -5
Full Name: Alyssandra 'Alyx' Mayweather Patterson
Race: Half-Human, Half-Echani
Age: 22
Height: 1m 62cm / 5'3.8"
Weight: 47kg / 103lbs
Appearance:
A few differences from the image I've picked to note:
Hair Color: Pure White
Eye Color: Bright Emerald Green
Birth place: Corellia
Faction: Jedi
Rank: Jedi Knight (Guardian)
Bio:
Alyssandra, or Alyx, as she was known for short, was born in a small village on Corellia, to an Echani father and Human mother. Curiously, unlike most Echani children, instead of mirroring the physical appearance of her mother, she had a blend of traits from both her Human and Echani parents, including the distinctive pure-white hair of an Echani.
At the young age of three, Alyssandra was identified as a Force Sensitive individual, and, after some consternation on the part of her parents, she was taken to the Jedi Order for training. One of Alyssandra's most vivid childhood memories is, thus, from the moment she was taken in by the Jedi; the moment she last saw her parents; her mother, eyes bright with unshed tears, one hand clutching the roughly-hewn emerald gem she always wore; her father, usually-stern face broken by a sad smile, eyes suspiciously bright, and she can remember with crystal clarity the four words spoken by her father as they parted; "Make us proud, daughter."
From that moment on, Alyssandra was brought up as a typical Jedi youngling; learning the rudiments of the Force, Jedi lore, and, eventually, the very beginnings of lightsaber combat, in the form of regular focus sessions deflecting mild stun bolts from hovering drones. In most of her classes, she performed in the average to above-average ranking of her peers, with the exception of lightsaber lessons; there, she was consistently graded as above-average, taking to the blade with an unusual talent.
At the age of nine, Alyssandra managed to attract the attention of an elderly Echani Jedi Knight named Jo-tan Harridan during a practice match between Alyssandra and a fellow Youngling, an older Devaronian boy named Talassar. Despite being younger, having had less instruction, and possessing far less strength than the Devaronian, she managed to hold her own, using her agility, the little knowledge she held of Shii-Cho, and some improvisation, before finally managing to defeat him when, while he attacked with a high horizontal swing, she ducked under, kicked a foot out from under him, and reversed her grip on the lightsaber, leaving its tip hovering just off his nose. What caught the attention of the elderly Knight, however, was not her victory, but rather, her follow-up; extinguishing her practice blade, helping her opponent up, and congratulating him on nearly beating her.
Though he did not take her as a Padawan at that time, Jo-tan kept an eye on young Alyssandra, watching her progress with keen interest as she grew from a quiet girl into an unusually mature and skilled young woman. Eventually, after some urging by fellow Knights, Jo-tan took the step of taking her as his Padawan, at the age of 11; thus began Alyssandra's training in earnest, as she sought to prove herself worth the time and effort of training.
For the next three years, Alyssandra and Jo-tan remained more-or-less constantly within the Coruscant Jedi Temple, as Jo-tan put her through a rigorous training regimen. In addition to fully fleshing out her knowledge of Shii-Cho, she was also taught Forms III (Soresu) and IV (Ataru), chosen to complement her agility and smaller stature, and make up for her lack of direct physical strength. She was also taught the first Tier of Echani unarmed combat, so that, should she be unable to use her lightsaber, she would not be defenseless. Many days passed where the only sounds Alyssandra heard were the humming of a lightsaber and her permanently formal Master's short, blunt words as he taught her.
To temper the combat-oriented skills, she was also taught further about the Force; how to achieve deep meditative states, and to be able to control her emotions; to reason, not only with her head, but with her heart; to recognize the Light and the Darkness, and to be able to distinguish between them. At least... in theory. He also taught her the deeper lore of the Jedi, including quite a few lessons concerning the attractiveness of, and the consequences of giving into, the Dark Side. As a final test, she was given a basic blue crystal by Jo-tan, and left to construct her first lightsaber. It took her a month and ten days of hard labour and careful worksmanship, during which she would often disappear for as long as a week before emerging to get more rations and water, but at last, the blade was finished.
Three years after the advent of her apprenticeship to Jo-tan Harridan, she emerged from the Jedi Temple alongside Jo-tan on the first of many missions they would undertake together. Her first mission was, alas, to be one of her most difficult; a mission to her home-planet of Corellia, to investigate reports of slavers in villages nearby the city. Travelling incognito in ubiquitous travel robes, they made their way to the village that was reported to have been attacked. What they found was not so much a village, but rather, a crater with ruined buildings in it; the slavers had hit the village, and hit it hard.
The ruination that had been wrought upon the town was not the most shocking part, however. That distinct dishonor was given to the two bodies, hung upon the remains of a tree near the centre of the township; bodies recognized by Alyssandra as her father and mother. Gazing on their corpses, Alyssandra had the perfect opportunity to utilize her training to control her suddenly-roiling emotions, and very quickly learned a vital lesson; theoretical training and practical application are two very different things. As emotions boiled through her; horror and despair at the death of her recognizable parents, anger and hatred toward the people - "No, the animals..." that had undertaken the horrid deed, and a flutter of fear that she would end up the same way, her Master placed one hand on her shoulder, and said several words that would stick with her for the rest of her life; "Grieve later, Alyssandra. For now, we are Jedi." The calm, collected words penetrated the maelstrom of emotion, allowing Alyssandra a fleeting moment of clarity. It was enough; slowly, carefully, she managed to, if not control, then contain her emotions, returning to a semblance of her Jedi calm.
As they pursued the slavers, Alyssandra's emotions slowly drained away, being replaced by a desire to bring justice to the slavers; a desire that would be met, as she and Jo-tan found the slavers at a small camp in a narrow canyon. The camp was unassuming, save for the cluster of mobile cages that were clustered just outside the camp containing dirty, manacled Corellians. Choosing to approach through the cages, the two Jedi carefully and quietly freed the slaves, pointing them toward a nearby village (no doubt the next target of the slavers), before calmly walking into the camp, outer robes discarded. Instead of pleading for reason, or requesting an audience with their leader, Jo-tan instead chose a far more direct option; igniting his lightsaber, he said in a loud, calm voice, his tone more order than request, "Surrender and come quietly."
Naturally, they did not.
In the space of two seconds, most of the slavers had blasters out, and fired a ragged salvo at the pair of Jedi. Shifting instantly into Soresu, Alyssandra opened herself to the Force, allowing it to guide her blade into the path of every bolt that approached. Feeling the Force flowing smoothly through her, she shifted from safely deflecting bolts away, to deflecting them into her foes. Rapidly, six slavers fell with smoking holes in a shoulder, leg, and one with a pair of badly burned hands from where his blaster, struck by a deflected bolt, had exploded in his two-handed grip. Jo-tan, meanwhile, was moving rapidly, striking out with his blade as his aged, yet surprisingly agile, form moved fluidly through the slavers, utilizing his mastery of Ataru to non-lethally strike down slavers left, right, center and, in one particularly impressive case, behind him and through the wall of a tent.
Before long, all but one of the slavers was writhing upon the ground with some form or another of non-lethal, but incapacitating, injury, leaving only one man; dressed in a mixture of armors, including pieces of Mandalorian Beskar'gam, and armed with an unusual-looking carbine. Above all this, though, Alyssandra's eyes caught sight of a roughly-hewn emerald pendant hanging from his neck, amid several other pendants and necklaces, clearly taken as 'prizes' from his captives. In a flash of clarity, her mind siezed upon her last memory of her parents, and in particular, the pendant her mother had clutched as she had said goodbye; the pendant now worn by the man in front of her! Her Jedi calm abruptly slipped, and the maelstrom of pain and anger, hatred and despair, erupted forth, and she instantly charged forward, a scream of raw anger and pain ripping from her throat, to knock the stunned man to the ground, lightsaber held up to his throat, singing the skin, panting raggedly from her sudden outpouring, as a voice in her mind whispered... "Do it. He killed them. He took them from you. Do it. Enjoy it. Embrace it..."
Then Jo-tan said one word from behind her, as her two mindsets - one familiar, welcoming, filled with light, the other dark, foreboding, and yet, strangely attractive - grappled with each other; "Alyx." Her eyes widened slightly as her always-formal Master referred to her by her nickname; a name she had not heard since her days as a Youngling. In that moment of clarity, realization - followed by burning shame - flooded through her. Though her anger toward the trembling slaver leader under her did not entirely vanish, she regained enough control to, instead of slicing his head open, slice his carbine in half, before getting up - pausing only to yank the emerald pendant from his neck, tucking it into a small pouch - and walking away from the somewhat relieved slave leader. Mere minutes later, CorSec officers were flooding the valley, arresting the small army of incapacitated slavers.
As they flew back to Coruscant, Jo-tan sat with Alyssandra within his quarters. For a good four minutes, no words were spoken, until Jo-tan suddenly broke the silence. "Every Jedi faces the fire, Alyssandra. From the most simple Youngling, to the Grandmaster himself, we all face the flames of torment. We all must face our own test, for the true test of a Jedi is to face their test, and to survive it. You faced yours earlier than most. Most would not have heard the call of reason, and have fallen into the pit of their own despair."
Turning to look her in the eyes, he ended with, "You did not. For that, I am proud."
Over the next several years, he and Alyssandra went on many missions, putting down criminal groups, negotiating peace treaties between rival factions on planets, and in one particularly humorous instance, helping to get a large number of a rare species of felinoid creature from the tops of several Wroshyr trees on Kashyyyk. As she trained, and experienced life as a Jedi outside the Temple, she gradually hardened, her control growing in strength, her ability to rein in and contain her emotions increasing in tandem with her knowledge and ability.
Eventually, though, Jo-tan's advanced age began to catch up with him, and, when he was 86 years of age, and Alyssandra 22, he finally decided to retire to a life within the Temple, instructing younglings and contributing further to the next generation of Jedi. Due to this, he chose to recommend Alyssandra to the Council, to undertake the Trials of Knighthood and join the ranks of Jedi Knights. This was put on hold, however, when Jo-tan was recalled to serve in one last mission by the Council - one that involved both he and his apprentice quite personally.
They were sent via express shuttlecraft to Chandrila, to an outlying rural outpost, to find a group of slavers, headed by an escaped slave leader. Unfortunately for them, said slave leader had vengeance in mind when he made his attack on Chandrila and fought off planetary security, and as they stepped off the transport, Jo-tan was caught off-guard and hit by a blaster bolt in the chest, dying instantly. At that same moment, the pilot of the shuttle blasted off, leaving her in the clutches of a small army of slavers. However, rather than surrender, she ignited her lightsaber, and said, loudly, in the same iron-cold tone of voice her late Master had used when they had first encountered the slavers, "Surrender and come quietly."
Naturally, outnumbering her forty to one and emboldened by their surprise victory over Jo-tan Harridan, they ignored the warning and opened fire.
Leaping into action, she submerged herself into the Force as she leaped amongst the slavers, lightsaber flashing out. No longer did she restrain herself to non-lethal blows; a Jedi Knight had fallen, and these slavers had presented a clear and present threat to herself and, more importantly, the Chandrilans. So it was no surprise that the slavers rapidly found their numbers dwindling as the small, lightning-fast girl with white hair broke through their lines with ease, cutting them down one after the other and ending lives as painlessly as possible. Eventually, the last of the slavers, the very same slaver leader she had faced on Corellia, stepped forward, carbine thrown aside and replaced by a wicked-looking double-bladed vibroblade, held in the casual-yet-ready manner of a man who knows full well how to use such a weapon to great effect.
The two circled for a matter of seconds, before the slaver rapidly stepped forward, launching into a vertical flurry of strikes that, instead of meeting and trying to halt, Alyssandra stepped around, sapphire lightsaber blade darting in to strike the man's chest, only to be deflected upwards by a rapid parry. He immediately followed this strike with a sudden riposte, lunging forward with the blade, forcing Alyssandra to step away and to the side, blade held in a defense posture. Thinking rapidly, she danced forward, landing several light feints on his blade before nimbly leaping over him, assisted by the Force, and striking out at him from above - only to have her blade caught on the reverse end of his double-blade. Landing, she stepped back, eyes analysing his style and technique. She glanced around her surroundings, and her eyes landed on her fallen Master's lightsaber, lying on the ground by his side. The beginnings of a plan forming in her mind, she looked back to the man - only to snap her blade up as he charged forward with a flurry of horizontal and vertical slashes, his superior strength driving him forward toward her. Feinting to the left and diving right, she rolled, calling through the Force for the second lightsaber, and came to her feet, facing her foe, one hand held behind her. With a muted whisp of noise, her Master's hilt landed in her hand, and she tapped the igniter, causing the brilliant aqua blade to erupt. She held her lightsaber up front, her Master's behind, her stance clearly showing she was not trained in the use of two blades, and her opponent, grinning, charged forward.
Unfortuantely for him, she never intended to fight with both.
Instead, she span, her Master's blade launching forward from her back hand, before charging forward as her opponent brought his blade up, surprised, to awkwardly deflect the thrown blade - only to be run through as she followed up, easily dodging under his blade and thrusting her own through his chest. She held him there for a brief second, before extinguishing the blade, letting the suddenly-lifeless man collapse to the ground, glassy eyes still wide in shock. Stumbling to her fallen Master's side, she almost-automatically pulled free her comlink, requesting pickup by the local planetary security, before kneeling beside her Master's corpse, eyes bright with unshed tears that were held back only by his words, spoken years ago after her first mission...
"Every Jedi faces the fire, Alyssandra. From the simple Youngling, to the Grandmaster himself, we all face the flames of torment. We all must face our own test, for the true test of a Jedi is to face their test, and to survive it."
Days later, on Coruscant, as the body of her late Master, and one of the few people who had truly understood her, burned to ashes on a funeral pyre, the words echoed in her mind still. Finally, after so long, she knew what it was to be a Jedi. It was not be to publicised, or bathed in glory by the masses. It was not to know fame and fortune throughout the galaxy.
It was duty. It was sacrifice. It was a calling above all others. A calling she would answer.
The next day, the Council promoted her to the rank of Jedi Knight, recognizing her actions on Chandrila as worthy of any Trial as a Padawan. A mere hour afterwards, she was in her quarters, lightsaber open on her desk, as she worked tirelessly for three days, modifying it to accept the emerald gem - found to be, in truth, a piece of crystal well and truly capable of use within a lightsaber - on her pendant as a focusing crystal for said lightsaber. As she sealed and ignited the weapon, admiring the blade as it shimmered, before tapping a control and doubling its length, then extinguishing it, she made a resolution to herself; "Never again will I be caught unprepared."
Lightsaber: Single (Dual-Phase)
Color: Dark Emerald Green Core, Sapphire Outer Sheen
Practiced Lightsaber forms:
Shii-Cho - 5
Makashi - N/A
Soresu - 1
Ataru - 3
Shien / Djem So - N/A
>>Sub-form Backhanded
Niman - N/A
>>Sub-form Jar-kai, or Dual Wield
Juyo - N/A
Double Bladed Combat N/A
Force-Sensitive Abilities or practices:
Telekinetic: 6
Telepathic: 4
Body: 6
Sense: 4
Protection: 5
Healing: 3
Destruction: 0
Specialized Skills: Knowledge of the First Tier of Echani Martial Arts
Attributes:
Physical Strength: 4
Intelligence: 6
Speed: 8
Leadership: 3
Unarmed: 7
Melee Weapons: 2
Ranged Weapons: 2
Force Attunement: +5
RP Sample:
Her quiet breathing was the only sound she could hear as she stalked the forest. Faint curtains of light from the full moon above formed a dark twilight under the canopy of leaves as her feet softly padded over the detritus of the trees and bushes, and her eyes scoured the forest floor in search of her quarry, even as her mind quested for him.
Bakura at night was not a particularly welcoming place, made worse only by the subject of her presence on the planet - a psychotic was loose. Normally, this would not be a problem for security forces, except for two factors; the psychotic was ex-military, and he was armed. The last patrol sent after him had half their men injured before the pulled back, the insane laughs of the man echoing in their ears.
A loud crack suddenly broke the silence, and Alyssandra's senses abruptly screamed of impending danger. Lightsaber practically leaping into her hand, she ignited and flowed into a deflection even as the man squeezed the trigger; an emerald-green blade, surrounded by a sapphire aura, suddenly interposed between her and the bolt, deflecting it harmlessly into the ground. She said in a loud, calm voice, four simple words; "Surrender and come quietly," her tone voicing it as more of an order than a request or plea for reason. She knew his type; his mind, now that she had found it, was a screaming beacon of anger, rage, and confusion, mixed with an unhealthy, almost sour note of insanity. To her distaste, it reminded her of the slavers from her recent mission to Chandrila.
Her mouth tightened at that thought, even as she ripped herself back into the present, eyes on the man as he stood there, crazed eyes widened as he glared at her with barely-suppressed fury. Suddenly, he grinned maniacally, and squeezed the trigger, sending a stream of badly aimed bolts spraying wildly toward her. She moved with the flow of the Force, letting her blade catch the dangerous bolts and ignoring those flashing around her, concentration still on the man as she began walking fowards. Her lightsaber was an emerald blur as she deflected bolt after bolt, until finally, the rifle stopped firing, the magazine emptied of charge. At that moment, she leaped forward with Force-enhanced swiftness, batted the rifle aside, and tackled the man to the ground, lightsaber extinguishing as she did so. Before he could resist fully, she rolled him over, and snapped a pair of cuffs - "Old, clunky things, but the simplest tools often work best," - to his wrists.
Pulling him up into a sitting position, he began to mumble incoherently, occasionally shouting an incomprehensible word with a great deal of rage, before sinking back into the stream of meaningless words. A spike of concern wedged itself into her mind, as she sat down in front of him - not close enough to be in danger, but close enough to be able to see his eyes. Opening her hands, palms upward, she opened her mind to his, pushing through the garbled surface thoughts and into the deeper recesses of his mind. She looked through his past; working as a soldier, putting down criminal gangs and upstart slavers - and then, suddenly, everything went garbled, as though a recording machine was putting random pieces in random places and passing it off as the real thing. Looking carefully back, she found the point at which everything changed... and realization dawned as she saw, through his eyes, a dead woman, blaster hanging from a limp hand, a blaster wound in her chest, and the soldier's smoking rifle as it lowered from her.
Withdrawing from his mind, she leaned forward, eyes fixed on his. Abruptly, his eyes made contact, and he stared with ferocious intensity at her. Opening her mouth, she said a few simple words; "It was not your fault. You did not know. She made her choice, and so did you." Outwardly, nothing changed in his expression. Inside his mind, though, much-rusted cogs began to slowly turn. Without another word, she carefully lifted the man to his feet and began the twenty-minute walk to the nearest security outpost.
Two weeks later, on Coruscant, Alyssandra recieved a message from the Bakuran Psychosis Recovery Ward telling her, quite simply, that the man who she had pacified had had a breakthrough in communication; he was now beginning to respond to therapy sessions. That night, Alyssandra slept with a rare smile on her face.
Race: Half-Human, Half-Echani
Age: 22
Height: 1m 62cm / 5'3.8"
Weight: 47kg / 103lbs
Appearance:
A few differences from the image I've picked to note:
- Her hair, instead of hanging free, is always tied up into a basic ponytail at the back.
- She always wears a pair of fingerless black leather gloves.
- Her boots are, instead of the massive-plate-steel-soled ones in the pic, simple leather boots.
Hair Color: Pure White
Eye Color: Bright Emerald Green
Birth place: Corellia
Faction: Jedi
Rank: Jedi Knight (Guardian)
Bio:
Alyssandra, or Alyx, as she was known for short, was born in a small village on Corellia, to an Echani father and Human mother. Curiously, unlike most Echani children, instead of mirroring the physical appearance of her mother, she had a blend of traits from both her Human and Echani parents, including the distinctive pure-white hair of an Echani.
At the young age of three, Alyssandra was identified as a Force Sensitive individual, and, after some consternation on the part of her parents, she was taken to the Jedi Order for training. One of Alyssandra's most vivid childhood memories is, thus, from the moment she was taken in by the Jedi; the moment she last saw her parents; her mother, eyes bright with unshed tears, one hand clutching the roughly-hewn emerald gem she always wore; her father, usually-stern face broken by a sad smile, eyes suspiciously bright, and she can remember with crystal clarity the four words spoken by her father as they parted; "Make us proud, daughter."
From that moment on, Alyssandra was brought up as a typical Jedi youngling; learning the rudiments of the Force, Jedi lore, and, eventually, the very beginnings of lightsaber combat, in the form of regular focus sessions deflecting mild stun bolts from hovering drones. In most of her classes, she performed in the average to above-average ranking of her peers, with the exception of lightsaber lessons; there, she was consistently graded as above-average, taking to the blade with an unusual talent.
At the age of nine, Alyssandra managed to attract the attention of an elderly Echani Jedi Knight named Jo-tan Harridan during a practice match between Alyssandra and a fellow Youngling, an older Devaronian boy named Talassar. Despite being younger, having had less instruction, and possessing far less strength than the Devaronian, she managed to hold her own, using her agility, the little knowledge she held of Shii-Cho, and some improvisation, before finally managing to defeat him when, while he attacked with a high horizontal swing, she ducked under, kicked a foot out from under him, and reversed her grip on the lightsaber, leaving its tip hovering just off his nose. What caught the attention of the elderly Knight, however, was not her victory, but rather, her follow-up; extinguishing her practice blade, helping her opponent up, and congratulating him on nearly beating her.
Though he did not take her as a Padawan at that time, Jo-tan kept an eye on young Alyssandra, watching her progress with keen interest as she grew from a quiet girl into an unusually mature and skilled young woman. Eventually, after some urging by fellow Knights, Jo-tan took the step of taking her as his Padawan, at the age of 11; thus began Alyssandra's training in earnest, as she sought to prove herself worth the time and effort of training.
For the next three years, Alyssandra and Jo-tan remained more-or-less constantly within the Coruscant Jedi Temple, as Jo-tan put her through a rigorous training regimen. In addition to fully fleshing out her knowledge of Shii-Cho, she was also taught Forms III (Soresu) and IV (Ataru), chosen to complement her agility and smaller stature, and make up for her lack of direct physical strength. She was also taught the first Tier of Echani unarmed combat, so that, should she be unable to use her lightsaber, she would not be defenseless. Many days passed where the only sounds Alyssandra heard were the humming of a lightsaber and her permanently formal Master's short, blunt words as he taught her.
To temper the combat-oriented skills, she was also taught further about the Force; how to achieve deep meditative states, and to be able to control her emotions; to reason, not only with her head, but with her heart; to recognize the Light and the Darkness, and to be able to distinguish between them. At least... in theory. He also taught her the deeper lore of the Jedi, including quite a few lessons concerning the attractiveness of, and the consequences of giving into, the Dark Side. As a final test, she was given a basic blue crystal by Jo-tan, and left to construct her first lightsaber. It took her a month and ten days of hard labour and careful worksmanship, during which she would often disappear for as long as a week before emerging to get more rations and water, but at last, the blade was finished.
Three years after the advent of her apprenticeship to Jo-tan Harridan, she emerged from the Jedi Temple alongside Jo-tan on the first of many missions they would undertake together. Her first mission was, alas, to be one of her most difficult; a mission to her home-planet of Corellia, to investigate reports of slavers in villages nearby the city. Travelling incognito in ubiquitous travel robes, they made their way to the village that was reported to have been attacked. What they found was not so much a village, but rather, a crater with ruined buildings in it; the slavers had hit the village, and hit it hard.
The ruination that had been wrought upon the town was not the most shocking part, however. That distinct dishonor was given to the two bodies, hung upon the remains of a tree near the centre of the township; bodies recognized by Alyssandra as her father and mother. Gazing on their corpses, Alyssandra had the perfect opportunity to utilize her training to control her suddenly-roiling emotions, and very quickly learned a vital lesson; theoretical training and practical application are two very different things. As emotions boiled through her; horror and despair at the death of her recognizable parents, anger and hatred toward the people - "No, the animals..." that had undertaken the horrid deed, and a flutter of fear that she would end up the same way, her Master placed one hand on her shoulder, and said several words that would stick with her for the rest of her life; "Grieve later, Alyssandra. For now, we are Jedi." The calm, collected words penetrated the maelstrom of emotion, allowing Alyssandra a fleeting moment of clarity. It was enough; slowly, carefully, she managed to, if not control, then contain her emotions, returning to a semblance of her Jedi calm.
As they pursued the slavers, Alyssandra's emotions slowly drained away, being replaced by a desire to bring justice to the slavers; a desire that would be met, as she and Jo-tan found the slavers at a small camp in a narrow canyon. The camp was unassuming, save for the cluster of mobile cages that were clustered just outside the camp containing dirty, manacled Corellians. Choosing to approach through the cages, the two Jedi carefully and quietly freed the slaves, pointing them toward a nearby village (no doubt the next target of the slavers), before calmly walking into the camp, outer robes discarded. Instead of pleading for reason, or requesting an audience with their leader, Jo-tan instead chose a far more direct option; igniting his lightsaber, he said in a loud, calm voice, his tone more order than request, "Surrender and come quietly."
Naturally, they did not.
In the space of two seconds, most of the slavers had blasters out, and fired a ragged salvo at the pair of Jedi. Shifting instantly into Soresu, Alyssandra opened herself to the Force, allowing it to guide her blade into the path of every bolt that approached. Feeling the Force flowing smoothly through her, she shifted from safely deflecting bolts away, to deflecting them into her foes. Rapidly, six slavers fell with smoking holes in a shoulder, leg, and one with a pair of badly burned hands from where his blaster, struck by a deflected bolt, had exploded in his two-handed grip. Jo-tan, meanwhile, was moving rapidly, striking out with his blade as his aged, yet surprisingly agile, form moved fluidly through the slavers, utilizing his mastery of Ataru to non-lethally strike down slavers left, right, center and, in one particularly impressive case, behind him and through the wall of a tent.
Before long, all but one of the slavers was writhing upon the ground with some form or another of non-lethal, but incapacitating, injury, leaving only one man; dressed in a mixture of armors, including pieces of Mandalorian Beskar'gam, and armed with an unusual-looking carbine. Above all this, though, Alyssandra's eyes caught sight of a roughly-hewn emerald pendant hanging from his neck, amid several other pendants and necklaces, clearly taken as 'prizes' from his captives. In a flash of clarity, her mind siezed upon her last memory of her parents, and in particular, the pendant her mother had clutched as she had said goodbye; the pendant now worn by the man in front of her! Her Jedi calm abruptly slipped, and the maelstrom of pain and anger, hatred and despair, erupted forth, and she instantly charged forward, a scream of raw anger and pain ripping from her throat, to knock the stunned man to the ground, lightsaber held up to his throat, singing the skin, panting raggedly from her sudden outpouring, as a voice in her mind whispered... "Do it. He killed them. He took them from you. Do it. Enjoy it. Embrace it..."
Then Jo-tan said one word from behind her, as her two mindsets - one familiar, welcoming, filled with light, the other dark, foreboding, and yet, strangely attractive - grappled with each other; "Alyx." Her eyes widened slightly as her always-formal Master referred to her by her nickname; a name she had not heard since her days as a Youngling. In that moment of clarity, realization - followed by burning shame - flooded through her. Though her anger toward the trembling slaver leader under her did not entirely vanish, she regained enough control to, instead of slicing his head open, slice his carbine in half, before getting up - pausing only to yank the emerald pendant from his neck, tucking it into a small pouch - and walking away from the somewhat relieved slave leader. Mere minutes later, CorSec officers were flooding the valley, arresting the small army of incapacitated slavers.
As they flew back to Coruscant, Jo-tan sat with Alyssandra within his quarters. For a good four minutes, no words were spoken, until Jo-tan suddenly broke the silence. "Every Jedi faces the fire, Alyssandra. From the most simple Youngling, to the Grandmaster himself, we all face the flames of torment. We all must face our own test, for the true test of a Jedi is to face their test, and to survive it. You faced yours earlier than most. Most would not have heard the call of reason, and have fallen into the pit of their own despair."
Turning to look her in the eyes, he ended with, "You did not. For that, I am proud."
Over the next several years, he and Alyssandra went on many missions, putting down criminal groups, negotiating peace treaties between rival factions on planets, and in one particularly humorous instance, helping to get a large number of a rare species of felinoid creature from the tops of several Wroshyr trees on Kashyyyk. As she trained, and experienced life as a Jedi outside the Temple, she gradually hardened, her control growing in strength, her ability to rein in and contain her emotions increasing in tandem with her knowledge and ability.
Eventually, though, Jo-tan's advanced age began to catch up with him, and, when he was 86 years of age, and Alyssandra 22, he finally decided to retire to a life within the Temple, instructing younglings and contributing further to the next generation of Jedi. Due to this, he chose to recommend Alyssandra to the Council, to undertake the Trials of Knighthood and join the ranks of Jedi Knights. This was put on hold, however, when Jo-tan was recalled to serve in one last mission by the Council - one that involved both he and his apprentice quite personally.
They were sent via express shuttlecraft to Chandrila, to an outlying rural outpost, to find a group of slavers, headed by an escaped slave leader. Unfortunately for them, said slave leader had vengeance in mind when he made his attack on Chandrila and fought off planetary security, and as they stepped off the transport, Jo-tan was caught off-guard and hit by a blaster bolt in the chest, dying instantly. At that same moment, the pilot of the shuttle blasted off, leaving her in the clutches of a small army of slavers. However, rather than surrender, she ignited her lightsaber, and said, loudly, in the same iron-cold tone of voice her late Master had used when they had first encountered the slavers, "Surrender and come quietly."
Naturally, outnumbering her forty to one and emboldened by their surprise victory over Jo-tan Harridan, they ignored the warning and opened fire.
Leaping into action, she submerged herself into the Force as she leaped amongst the slavers, lightsaber flashing out. No longer did she restrain herself to non-lethal blows; a Jedi Knight had fallen, and these slavers had presented a clear and present threat to herself and, more importantly, the Chandrilans. So it was no surprise that the slavers rapidly found their numbers dwindling as the small, lightning-fast girl with white hair broke through their lines with ease, cutting them down one after the other and ending lives as painlessly as possible. Eventually, the last of the slavers, the very same slaver leader she had faced on Corellia, stepped forward, carbine thrown aside and replaced by a wicked-looking double-bladed vibroblade, held in the casual-yet-ready manner of a man who knows full well how to use such a weapon to great effect.
The two circled for a matter of seconds, before the slaver rapidly stepped forward, launching into a vertical flurry of strikes that, instead of meeting and trying to halt, Alyssandra stepped around, sapphire lightsaber blade darting in to strike the man's chest, only to be deflected upwards by a rapid parry. He immediately followed this strike with a sudden riposte, lunging forward with the blade, forcing Alyssandra to step away and to the side, blade held in a defense posture. Thinking rapidly, she danced forward, landing several light feints on his blade before nimbly leaping over him, assisted by the Force, and striking out at him from above - only to have her blade caught on the reverse end of his double-blade. Landing, she stepped back, eyes analysing his style and technique. She glanced around her surroundings, and her eyes landed on her fallen Master's lightsaber, lying on the ground by his side. The beginnings of a plan forming in her mind, she looked back to the man - only to snap her blade up as he charged forward with a flurry of horizontal and vertical slashes, his superior strength driving him forward toward her. Feinting to the left and diving right, she rolled, calling through the Force for the second lightsaber, and came to her feet, facing her foe, one hand held behind her. With a muted whisp of noise, her Master's hilt landed in her hand, and she tapped the igniter, causing the brilliant aqua blade to erupt. She held her lightsaber up front, her Master's behind, her stance clearly showing she was not trained in the use of two blades, and her opponent, grinning, charged forward.
Unfortuantely for him, she never intended to fight with both.
Instead, she span, her Master's blade launching forward from her back hand, before charging forward as her opponent brought his blade up, surprised, to awkwardly deflect the thrown blade - only to be run through as she followed up, easily dodging under his blade and thrusting her own through his chest. She held him there for a brief second, before extinguishing the blade, letting the suddenly-lifeless man collapse to the ground, glassy eyes still wide in shock. Stumbling to her fallen Master's side, she almost-automatically pulled free her comlink, requesting pickup by the local planetary security, before kneeling beside her Master's corpse, eyes bright with unshed tears that were held back only by his words, spoken years ago after her first mission...
"Every Jedi faces the fire, Alyssandra. From the simple Youngling, to the Grandmaster himself, we all face the flames of torment. We all must face our own test, for the true test of a Jedi is to face their test, and to survive it."
Days later, on Coruscant, as the body of her late Master, and one of the few people who had truly understood her, burned to ashes on a funeral pyre, the words echoed in her mind still. Finally, after so long, she knew what it was to be a Jedi. It was not be to publicised, or bathed in glory by the masses. It was not to know fame and fortune throughout the galaxy.
It was duty. It was sacrifice. It was a calling above all others. A calling she would answer.
The next day, the Council promoted her to the rank of Jedi Knight, recognizing her actions on Chandrila as worthy of any Trial as a Padawan. A mere hour afterwards, she was in her quarters, lightsaber open on her desk, as she worked tirelessly for three days, modifying it to accept the emerald gem - found to be, in truth, a piece of crystal well and truly capable of use within a lightsaber - on her pendant as a focusing crystal for said lightsaber. As she sealed and ignited the weapon, admiring the blade as it shimmered, before tapping a control and doubling its length, then extinguishing it, she made a resolution to herself; "Never again will I be caught unprepared."
Lightsaber: Single (Dual-Phase)
Color: Dark Emerald Green Core, Sapphire Outer Sheen
Practiced Lightsaber forms:
Shii-Cho - 5
Makashi - N/A
Soresu - 1
Ataru - 3
Shien / Djem So - N/A
>>Sub-form Backhanded
Niman - N/A
>>Sub-form Jar-kai, or Dual Wield
Juyo - N/A
Double Bladed Combat N/A
Force-Sensitive Abilities or practices:
Telekinetic: 6
Telepathic: 4
Body: 6
Sense: 4
Protection: 5
Healing: 3
Destruction: 0
Specialized Skills: Knowledge of the First Tier of Echani Martial Arts
Attributes:
Physical Strength: 4
Intelligence: 6
Speed: 8
Leadership: 3
Unarmed: 7
Melee Weapons: 2
Ranged Weapons: 2
Force Attunement: +5
RP Sample:
Her quiet breathing was the only sound she could hear as she stalked the forest. Faint curtains of light from the full moon above formed a dark twilight under the canopy of leaves as her feet softly padded over the detritus of the trees and bushes, and her eyes scoured the forest floor in search of her quarry, even as her mind quested for him.
Bakura at night was not a particularly welcoming place, made worse only by the subject of her presence on the planet - a psychotic was loose. Normally, this would not be a problem for security forces, except for two factors; the psychotic was ex-military, and he was armed. The last patrol sent after him had half their men injured before the pulled back, the insane laughs of the man echoing in their ears.
A loud crack suddenly broke the silence, and Alyssandra's senses abruptly screamed of impending danger. Lightsaber practically leaping into her hand, she ignited and flowed into a deflection even as the man squeezed the trigger; an emerald-green blade, surrounded by a sapphire aura, suddenly interposed between her and the bolt, deflecting it harmlessly into the ground. She said in a loud, calm voice, four simple words; "Surrender and come quietly," her tone voicing it as more of an order than a request or plea for reason. She knew his type; his mind, now that she had found it, was a screaming beacon of anger, rage, and confusion, mixed with an unhealthy, almost sour note of insanity. To her distaste, it reminded her of the slavers from her recent mission to Chandrila.
Her mouth tightened at that thought, even as she ripped herself back into the present, eyes on the man as he stood there, crazed eyes widened as he glared at her with barely-suppressed fury. Suddenly, he grinned maniacally, and squeezed the trigger, sending a stream of badly aimed bolts spraying wildly toward her. She moved with the flow of the Force, letting her blade catch the dangerous bolts and ignoring those flashing around her, concentration still on the man as she began walking fowards. Her lightsaber was an emerald blur as she deflected bolt after bolt, until finally, the rifle stopped firing, the magazine emptied of charge. At that moment, she leaped forward with Force-enhanced swiftness, batted the rifle aside, and tackled the man to the ground, lightsaber extinguishing as she did so. Before he could resist fully, she rolled him over, and snapped a pair of cuffs - "Old, clunky things, but the simplest tools often work best," - to his wrists.
Pulling him up into a sitting position, he began to mumble incoherently, occasionally shouting an incomprehensible word with a great deal of rage, before sinking back into the stream of meaningless words. A spike of concern wedged itself into her mind, as she sat down in front of him - not close enough to be in danger, but close enough to be able to see his eyes. Opening her hands, palms upward, she opened her mind to his, pushing through the garbled surface thoughts and into the deeper recesses of his mind. She looked through his past; working as a soldier, putting down criminal gangs and upstart slavers - and then, suddenly, everything went garbled, as though a recording machine was putting random pieces in random places and passing it off as the real thing. Looking carefully back, she found the point at which everything changed... and realization dawned as she saw, through his eyes, a dead woman, blaster hanging from a limp hand, a blaster wound in her chest, and the soldier's smoking rifle as it lowered from her.
Withdrawing from his mind, she leaned forward, eyes fixed on his. Abruptly, his eyes made contact, and he stared with ferocious intensity at her. Opening her mouth, she said a few simple words; "It was not your fault. You did not know. She made her choice, and so did you." Outwardly, nothing changed in his expression. Inside his mind, though, much-rusted cogs began to slowly turn. Without another word, she carefully lifted the man to his feet and began the twenty-minute walk to the nearest security outpost.
Two weeks later, on Coruscant, Alyssandra recieved a message from the Bakuran Psychosis Recovery Ward telling her, quite simply, that the man who she had pacified had had a breakthrough in communication; he was now beginning to respond to therapy sessions. That night, Alyssandra slept with a rare smile on her face.
